Former NBA player Jalen Rose uses his Grantland podcast to tell a lot of jokes — "champagning and campaigning" is one of the program's signature phrases. But every once and a while he will drop a gem, a prediction that rings true.

Rose was one of the first media personalities to predict that James Harden would be traded from the Oklahoma City Thunder. Most recently, he mentioned Michigan State coach Tom Izzo as a potential candidate to coach the Detroit Pistons in the future.

Those words have since been confirmed by USAToday's Sam Amick, one of the NBA's best breaking news reporters. One person within the Pistons' ownership will make an offseason push to land Izzo as the franchise's next coach, according to Amick.

When asked about his comments by Sporting News, Rose added some detail on what led him to believe Izzo could be looking toward an NBA future.

"Just being in the know, being in the loop and really following both sports intimately and watching how Izzo has recruited recently," Rose said. "If you noticed, most of the top schools—Kansas comes to mind, Kentucky and now even Duke—they're doing more recruiting of what we consider the one and done prospects. You notice that Tom Izzo hasn't really went heavily after those prospects. It seemed like to me he was gearing up for one last run."

While Izzo did recruit Jabari Parker, who chose Duke over Michigan State, he does have a veteran-laden team.

Gary Harris has been with the program for two years, but many of the other major players are juniors and seniors, including Adreian Payne, Keith Appling and Branden Dawson. As Rose put it, when those players take off from East Lansing, Mich., "it almost leaves the cupboard bare."

After analyzing the Spartans' recruiting habits, Rose then went down the line naming Izzo's connections to the Pistons. Detroit owner Tom Gores is a Michigan State alum, and when Izzo previously flirted with the NBA—with the Cavaliers in 2010—it was Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert who shared Michigan ties.

The Pistons, who still have to make a decision on GM Joe Dumars' future, fired coach Maurice Cheeks this season after the team's slow start. He had spent only 50 games as Pistons coach.

There are obvious reasons to be interested in Izzo. The Michigan State coach is one of college basketball's great winners, having led the Spartans to six Final Fours and a national title in the 1999-2000 season.

Another factor that makes him attractive to the NBA is the number of professional products to come through the program. A long list includes Zach Randolph, Draymond Green, Alan Anderson and Jason Richardson. Two players on the current Spartans' roster, Harris and Payne, also are projected as first-round picks.